It is an award-winning state-of-the-art training facility and the largest indoor and outdoor athletics centre, serving London and the South of England and home to four British track and field medallists at the London Olympics. Also it was one of the key London 2012 training venues for Olympic and Paralympic athletes.

The schools travelled to further extend and enrich the athletic experiences of their young athletes by giving them the opportunity to use the same venue as some of the top athletes in the world.

“We wanted to inspire our talented athletes to achieve their PBs through living the Olympic and Paralympic values and where better than here, where you feel inspired to perform,” said Terry Graves, Greneway’s assistant headteacher.

Every athlete had two specific event training sessions, where they followed individually tailored programmes. The Indoor facilities used included: Russell Franklin, Meridian’s head of PE reinforced the feelings of all the teachers, saying the “world-class” facilities brought out the best in the athletes.

Viv Ofstedahl, a PE teacher at Greneway, added: “Many of the senior athletes not only impressed with their expertise and level of performance, but also with their leadership and ability to inspire many of the younger ones. It was fantastic to see.”